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Full-Text Articles in Law

Frank R. Kennedy, James J. White Nov 1983

Frank R. Kennedy, James J. White

Articles

In an academic world thickly populated with persons of unlimited ego but of limited scholarly output, Frank Kennedy stands out as a remarkable exception. On the one hand he is the author of scholarly writings too numerous to recount; on the other he is a man of deep humility. A reader or listener soon learns he has strong views which he states with power and precision. Yet his humility is such that he will listen patiently to the most idiotic view of a colleague or student and will kindly help them find their way.


Perpetuity Reform, Lawrence W. Waggoner Aug 1983

Perpetuity Reform, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

After years of debate, perpetuity reform is still controversial. To be sure, there is agreement among virtually all of the commentators and experts in the field that the Rule Against Perpetuities is in need of reform. The disagreement, on the surface, centers on the methods of reform to be employed. At least three basic methods have been advanced: (1) specific statutory repair of discrete problem areas; (2) reformation; and (3) wait-and-see. Each method has its sponsors, and each has in one form or another been adopted as part of the law of a few states. These methods are not mutually …


Scholarly Books: What, To Whom And Why, James J. White Mar 1983

Scholarly Books: What, To Whom And Why, James J. White

Articles

A consideration of the role that the books reviewed in this edition will play in the future of American legal thought has led me to speculate about the transmission of ideas into acts and about the role of books in that transmission. In certain arenas, tracing an idea from its origins to its ultimate application is straightforward. For example, the evolution of Germany's Schlieffen plan for invading France can be traced with little difficulty from the circumstances responsible for its birth, through years of refinement, to its eventual application in World War I. The development and acceptance of a medical …


The Invisible Discourse Of The Law: Reflections On Legal Literacy And General Education, James Boyd White Jan 1983

The Invisible Discourse Of The Law: Reflections On Legal Literacy And General Education, James Boyd White

Articles

My subject today is "legal literacy," but to put it that way requires immediate clarification, for that phrase has a wide range of possible meanings with many of which we shall have nothing to do. At one end of its spectrum of significance, for example, "legal literacy" means full competence in legal discourse, both as reader and as writer. This kind of literacy is the object of a professional education, and it requires not only a period of formal schooling but years of practice as well. Indeed, as is also the case with other real languages, the ideal of perfect …


Litigation Abuse And The Law Schools, John W. Reed Jan 1983

Litigation Abuse And The Law Schools, John W. Reed

Articles

At the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in July, 1983, one session was devoted to a discussion of "Excessive Discovery: A Symptom of Litigation Abuse." (Without knowing, I would guess that a similar title appeared on just about every judicial conference program this year-and last year, and the one before that.) Frank Rothman, President of MGM/United Artists, addressed the subject from the point of view of a corporate client, and his remarks are printed in this issue, beginning at page 342. Judges and trial lawyers expressed their views. And I was asked to comment on the extent to which the law …


The Emergence Of A General Reformation Doctrine For Wills, Lawrence W. Waggoner, John H. Langbein Jan 1983

The Emergence Of A General Reformation Doctrine For Wills, Lawrence W. Waggoner, John H. Langbein

Articles

In this article, which both summarizes and updates an extensively footnoted article published last year ("Reformation of Wills on the Ground of Mistake: Change of Direction in American Law?" 130 University of Pennsylvania Law Rmiew 521 (1982)), we report on this new case law and discuss the analytic framework that we think it suggests and requires.


Against Evaluator Relativity: A Response To Sen, Donald H. Regan Jan 1983

Against Evaluator Relativity: A Response To Sen, Donald H. Regan

Articles

In a recent essay in this journal Amartya Sen introduced the notion of an evaluator-relative consequence-based morality. The basic idea can be described very simply. A consequence-based morality is a morality that instructs each agent to maximize some objective function defined over states of affairs. Such a morality is evaluator neutral if it assigns to every agent the same objective function. If different agents have different objective functions, then the morality is evaluator relative. For example, a morality would be evaluator relative if it assigned to Jones an objective function giving greater weight to the welfare of Jones's children than …


Does (Did) (Should) The Exclusionary Rule Rest On A 'Principled Basis' Rather Than An 'Empirical Proposition'?, Yale Kamisar Jan 1983

Does (Did) (Should) The Exclusionary Rule Rest On A 'Principled Basis' Rather Than An 'Empirical Proposition'?, Yale Kamisar

Articles

[U]ntil the [exclusionary rule] rests on a principled basis rather than an empirical proposition, [the rule] will remain in a state of unstable equilibrium. Mapp v. Ohio, which overruled the then twelve-year-old Wolf case and imposed the fourth amendment exclusionary rule (the Weeks doctrine) on the states as a matter of fourteenth amendment due process, seemed to mark the end of an era. Concurring in Mapp, Justice Douglas recalled that Wolf had evoked "a storm of constitutional controversy which only today finds its end."' But in the two decades since Justice Douglas made this observation, the storm of controversy has …


In Re Lattouf's Will And The Presumption Of Lifetime Fertility In Perpetuity Law, Lawrence W. Waggoner Jan 1983

In Re Lattouf's Will And The Presumption Of Lifetime Fertility In Perpetuity Law, Lawrence W. Waggoner

Articles

Adoption of children is an ever-present complication of class gifts and the Rule Against Perpetuities. Given this fac any effort to find the presumption of lifetime fertility rebuttable is largely illusory. The author demonstrates that the gift in In Re Lattouf's Will could have been sustained even in face of an irrebuttable presumption.


The Recent Erosion Of The Secured Creditor's Rights Through Cases, Rules And Statutory Changes In Bankruptcy Law, James J. White Jan 1983

The Recent Erosion Of The Secured Creditor's Rights Through Cases, Rules And Statutory Changes In Bankruptcy Law, James J. White

Articles

One can view the law of creditors' rights as a series of cyclesin which alternatively the rights of the creditor and then those of the debtor are in ascendancy. Looking back through Americanlegislative history, one sees both the state legislatures and the Congress intervening on behalf of debtors in a variety of ways onmany occasions. An early example of such intervention was the enactment, particularly in the Midwest and West, of generous exemption laws that removed a variety of property beyond the reach of general creditors. A second example is the enactment of usury laws, which continue to be a …


The Impact Of Executions On Homicides: A New Look In An Old Light, Richard Lempert Jan 1983

The Impact Of Executions On Homicides: A New Look In An Old Light, Richard Lempert

Articles

Ehrlich's first point is that if one is searching for deterrence it is the law in action (i.e., the actual incidence of executions) rather than the law on the books (i.e., the presence or absence of the death penalty) which is crucial. His second point is that in order to spot deterrent effects other factors which might affect homicide rates, such as conviction rates and unemployment rates, must be held constant. Many of those who believe that Ehrlich's work is fundamentally flawed nevertheless accept these criticisms. This article follows Sellin's approach but takes account of Ehrlich's criticisms. Instead of comparing …


Suicide And The Failure Of Modern Moral Theory, Donald H. Regan Jan 1983

Suicide And The Failure Of Modern Moral Theory, Donald H. Regan

Articles

The question I want to address is when and why suicide is morally wrong. There is something peculiar in my writing on this question at all. It will soon become apparent that although I think suicide involves genuine moral issues. I also think that the moral problem of suicide is a problem which most people answer correctly. That is, I think that in the vast majority of cases where people ought not to commit suicide, they do not. They are not even tempted. Conversely, most people who do commit suicide, or who want to, are either justified or at least …


Extraordinary Writ Practice In Criminal Cases: Analogies For The Military Courts, Edward H. Cooper Jan 1983

Extraordinary Writ Practice In Criminal Cases: Analogies For The Military Courts, Edward H. Cooper

Articles

Extraordinary writs have two central functions in the hands of appellate courts. One is to enforce the court's mandate; there is no particular difficulty with this use of the writs, and no more need be said about it. The other function is to circumvent the ordinary channels of appellate review. In this function, writs operate as appeals in all but name. As this use has become more and more routine, it would be more appropriate to speak of them as "appeals writs" rather than extraordinary writs. My assignment is to speak of the experience with appeals writs in criminal cases …


The Ethics Of Argument: Plato's Gorgias And The Modern Lawyer, James Boyd White Jan 1983

The Ethics Of Argument: Plato's Gorgias And The Modern Lawyer, James Boyd White

Articles

In what follows I shall analyze Plato's text and do my best to suggest a response to it. But I should say at the outset that for the modern lawyer and law teacher this is not merely an academic exercise, for we in fact are rhetoricians very much as Plato defines them. What is at stake for us in reading this dialogue is what it means to have devoted ourselves to the set of social and intellectual practices that define the profession of law. We have a special relation to this text, for we can in the full Platonic sense …